Education in Florida is undersold

Florida's gains in K-12 education are underappreciated. The higher-ed system is improving in places but still spotty overall.

Reality: "When it comes to education progress, Florida is a star performer. Demography need not be destiny. Over the past decade, Florida has succeeded in improving student achievement despite its demographic profile. Florida has managed to realize such gains although the state's per-student funding is below the national average."

47.4% — Florida high school seniors who take an Advanced Placement exam — the highest percentage in the nation. Florida also ranks sixth in the nation for the percentage of students who score a 3 or higher on the AP exam at 23.9%, above the national average
of 18.1%.

K-12 funding and K-12 quality are hotly debated, and different measures give different pictures of Florida's school quality. But as recently as 2010 Florida had climbed to fifth nationally in Education Week's ranking of schools (though the state fell off in 2011 to 11th). Earlier this year, the National Council on Teacher Quality gave Florida the highest grade in the nation, albeit a "B." And the Economist magazine, in a story in February on former Gov. Jeb Bush's influence on school improvement in America, said of the state, "its schools were among the nation's worst in 1999 and are now among the best." State Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, argues Florida should provide more funding for education and improve the dropout rate and education in arts and music but, he adds, in the core curriculum of reading, writing and math, "we're up there, but it's not what we tell the world. Performance-wise, we're a top 10 state in the nation." Indeed, education is just one area where Florida undersells itself nationally, says Ring, an early Yahoo executive who has lived in New York, California and Massachusetts. Ring says Florida has good research centers, talent, a significant venture capital community, incubators and other innovation hallmarks. "We've done a tremendous amount to build an economic innovation ecosystem in the state. But we've done a poor job of branding that."
— Mike Vogel

» Charter school enrollment tripled in the last 10 years to 154,780 students in 2011, while private school enrollment dropped 13.7% to 305,825 in 2010-11. Meanwhile, the number of students being home-schooled grew by 68% to 69,281 students.

• Higher Ed

Spending
The state has reduced its higher-ed spending, shifting cost to students and their families.

Year

State General Revenue

Tuition

2006-07

$7,764

$3,586

2007-08

7,685

3,565

2008-09

6,926

3,792

2009-10

5,773

4,231

2010-11

5,673

4,441

2011-12

4,938

4,960

58.8% — percentage of Florida high school grads who move on to a "degree-granting institution" vs. the national average of 63.8%

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» Cheap: On most measures of consumer spending for various goods and services like transportation, leisure and housing, Florida — the fourth-largest state — ranks between third and fifth. The exception:
On spending for education, where the state ranks 10th, according to Euromonitor International.